Proceedings of the 31st International Academic Conference, London

“BY FAILING TO PREPARE, YOU ARE PREPARING TO FAIL”: THE IMPORTANCE OF TEACHING LEGAL RISK MANAGEMENT, GOVERNANCE AND COMPLIANCE TO LAW STUDENTS

CHARLES WILD, STUART WEINSTEIN

Abstract:

High profile corporate scandals have not only taught us that the loss of reputation can have a significant, if not, fatal effect on a company but also ensured that the study and implementation of legal risk management is at the forefront of the UK’s business and legal sectors. The significance of the complex assortment of new and often contradictory laws and regulations with which companies are faced in today’s global business environment should not be underestimated. Many international companies recognise this and invest heavily in implementing internal mechanisms and controls to detect and prevent compliance breaches. However, such systems and controls cannot succeed without the development of a strong compliance culture that gets “buy-in” from all levels of a business. At the heart of this compliance culture is a company’s legal and compliance manager(s). Effective legal risk management and compliance requires a company’s legal and compliance manager(s) to gain a substantive knowledge of business and societal risks, awareness and insight into regulation and regulatory changes as well as an understanding of the potential impact of regulation on their organisation. Once these risks have been identified, and appropriate regulatory challenges ascertained, a business must develop, implement and communicate internal policies and ensure that effective control systems are also in place. In order to prove both efficient and effective, a business’ legal and compliance manager(s) must draw informed links between regulation and the formulation of sound internal policies related to risks and controls at all relevant levels of their organisation. They must also implementation appropriate procedures to support such policies. Consequently, in order to be effective, a company’s legal and compliance manager(s) must not just identify problems but, more importantly, draw upon proven solutions to ensure success. The legal risk management process relies on a business’ ability to manage processes, implement change, track issues, screen potential clients, partners and employees and to implement appropriate remediation. The pressure on management to ensure that a business operates in a compliant way is considerable, and growing. Managers must be permanently on their guard against things going wrong and, as such, are reliant on their legal and compliance manager(s) being ever vigilant and seeking to reduce risk to a minimum. The authors argue that in order to gain a well-rounded, informed business-focused preparation for work within the legal sector, every law student should, at some stage, gain a grounding in Legal Risk Management, Governance & Compliance.

Keywords: Legal Education Legal Risk Management, Governance & Compliance Multi-disciplinary

DOI: 10.20472/IAC.2017.031.058

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